beth0905

Wow 100 pounds!!! Good for you! I have lapband and I lost almost 100 the first year (wanted to lose 180) and I was feeling stressed that I had 80 pounds left. Then my band got overfull or slipped or something and all the Fluid was taken out. I never was able to get back to the feelings of fullness or able to eat heavy Proteins (only sliders) and gained 80 of it back. So my suggestion is to try to look at the amazing positive you've accomplished. Don't be so hard on yourself for the 40 left. Consider it sculpting which can be a little slower but is incredibly satisfying. I'm so jealous you only have 40 pounds left! I was submitted for a sleeve revision from the lapband and I've been a stress ball waiting to hear back if it was approved. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hi Everyone! I've spent the past few days reading the forums here and have been on a rollercoaster of happiness and hope and being terrified of complications, So I live in Ma and had the lapband surgery completed in December of 08. I've had the band just about three years. I started at about 330 and dropped down to 243 at my lowest. I was never hungry, I had so much energy, I was super concerned about my hair thinning and such which was a bummer but I was on a roll. Then I had too much restriction after a fill and I had a slip or something (He never told me after the swallow) and all the Fluid was removed from my band. 4 weeks later he started slowly filling me up. At this point I started gaining weight. Over the course of the next two years I have been not full enough and so hungry and basically dieting (which I suck at.. let's face it.. we all sucked at it right?) to overfilled and sliming, puking one day and okay the next. But I developed this almost abject fears of solids. Every time I'd try, more often then not, I"d end up throwing up. But I was a good little lapband solider. I saw my doctor/surgeon once or twice a month for adjustments. I went to the nutrionist a few times. I tried my hardest to avoid mushies and I was so tired all the time I got my carb cravings back and it's been monumental staying away. Well I'm up to 300 again and my doctor said he knows I tried but the band is failed. My port hurts all the time, my teeth are starting to erode from all the being sick, I never know what to eat or not eat anymore. So he suggested sleeve. At the time I got my lapband 3 friends of mine got bypass. All are thin and I'm not. So I hadn't even considered sleeve. He suggested a surgeon for me that does the revisions and I went to the appointment. She pushed the sleeve. Said it was a much easier surgery to convert from lapband to sleeve and 1/3 of the time when she goes in there and removes the band for bypass patients she has to sew them back up to heal a bit. So I went home a little confused. DId some research. Read these forums and started to have hope for myself again. I decided on sleeve. I will find out my surgery date next week after I finish the three appointments I need to attend (today, mon/tues). Today was the nutrionist class. (Gosh I've been to so many I could teach them). In the pamphlet it said you could expect to lose 8-20 pounds in the first two months then it will slowly come off. They only require a 2 week liquid diet (but you can have chicken breast for dinner). Which is odd. I had 2 week only liquid diet for lapband. So I mighht just do a strictly Protein shakes, sugarfree Jello type thing again on my own. I got a little discouraged at that at the pamphlet saying that you could expect to lose (only) 8-20 pounds the first two months. I thought sleeve would be a faster weight loss. Even faster then the lapband and more along the lines of bypass weight loss. Am I wrong? How fast does the weight come off? Is it similiar to bypass? Even though my lapband doctor says he thinks my band is fine I am terrified of them finding it grew into an organ, or adhesions galore or something terrible. Also afraid of the idea of a leak. There was a woman in the weighting room in one of those very expensive reclining electrical wheelchairs who looked so sickly and I was about 2 minutes from bolting. (this surgeon does lapbands, bypass and sleeves and I think ds) I had no hope at all of losing weight about a year ago until I went to this appointment. Now I have hope but I'm almost afraid to. I want to go into this as positively as I did the lapband surgery and with the commitment and energy that I will lose 100 percent of my extra weight but I have questions if someone can help me. Is the weight loss after the revision slower/faster than the lapband? Is it similiar to having a bypass (the weight loss speed)? Were you nervous wrecks pre-surgery? Is the hunger less than when you had the lapband? Would you do it all over again if you went back in time? Any advice for me? Thank you so much for reading my rambling!

Thank you all Especially for the words of support. I've been busy reading more and there seems to be an awful lot of stories of leaks or am I reading the threads wrong? I read that this is the surgery with the least amount of potential complications but then a lot of the threads seem to be about leaks. Or maybe it's a few people and I just haven't noticed the multiple posts. I was hoping someone who had the revision done (successfully!) would chime in and answer some of my questions about the rate of weightloss. Spatter I'll keep you in my thoughts tomorrow I"m sure it will all go really well!